Julian Bream (guitar)
A Tribute - Volume 3
Peter Pears (tenor)
rec. June 1969 and September-October 1977 (Britten Folksongs, Schubert), Aldeburgh Festivals
DOREMI DHR-8155 [65:11]
The third volume in this series is more focused in its source material than the second but then again it’s a single disc and not a twofer. Thus, here there are live examples of Bream’s art from only two Aldeburgh festivals, those of 1969 and 1977.
The earlier was given in Blythburgh Parish Church and illustrates his assured approach to solo guitar programming wearing, as it does, a very decidedly Bream-like look: Classical, Spanish, Contemporary British (hot off the press, in fact, in the case of Richard Rodney Bennett’s Impromptus) and a Bach encore. He was much taken by Wenzel Joseph Kohaut’s Lute Sonata in A major, heard in guitar transcription, and it’s not hard to hear why. Not only was Kohaut, an Austrian military man who deserted to work as lutenist and composer in France, rather obscure but his music is concise, well-crafted, happily buoyant and full of verve.
The remainder of the programme includes two solid staples of his Sor repertoire, both played with exquisite poise, tonal subtlety and virtuosity, the opening Largo of the fantasia, Op.7/2 and the shorter Menuetto taken from the Sonata, Op.25, a considerably later work. If you enjoy Bream’s way with the Menuetto you should certainly hear his recording of the whole sonata, if you haven’t already. Speaking of technical accomplishment, he also plays Giuliani’s Grande Ouverture, written in the same year as Sor’s Fantasia, and in Bream’s hands a near eight-minute parade of sparkling legerdemain.
Those in the church and listening on the BBC had the chance to hear the premiere performance of Bennett’s five Impromptus which had been composed for Bream the previous year. The guitarist had asked for a concerto but Bennett hadn’t felt sufficiently versed in the guitar’s capacities so countered with what he termed ‘a little exercise toward writing a concerto.’ The concerto duly appeared a couple of years later. The Impromptus, now often played by guitarists, explore the colouristic range of the instrument in a kind of generous-minded and genial form of serialism.
One of the pieces central to Bream’s repertoire of modern British works was Britten’s Nocturnal, a piece that will be forever associated with him. You can find another Aldeburgh performance in this series – the 1964 performance on DHR-8151-2 - but this one in 1969 is particularly fine and the recording catches his eloquence and control of its seamless movement through its meditative and restless moments towards ultimate resolution. The encore, briefly self-announced, is Bream’s own arrangement of Bach’s Prelude from the Cello Suite No.1.
There’s a much smaller memento-like section given to some examples from the First Aldeburgh Autumn Chamber Music Festival in 1977. Britten had died the previous year and Peter Pears, who was then 67, joined Bream for two Britten-arranged folksongs, I will give my love an apple and Master Kilby. The main piece though is the guitarist’s transcription of the Menuetto from Schubert’s Piano Sonata No.18 in G major, D.894. As Jack Silver relates in the fine booklet notes there was precedent for this in the form of Tárrega’s transcription, much played by Segovia.
This, then, is a representative hour (plus) in the company of Julian Bream, very largely solo, and well recorded.
Jonathan Woolf
Contents
Wenzel Joseph KOHAUT (1738-1793)
Guitar Sonata in A major [12:01]
Fernando SOR (1778-1839)
Fantasia: Largo, Op.7 No.2 (pub 1814) [5:42]
Guitar Sonata: Menuetto, Op.25 'Grand Sonata' (pub 1827) [2:45]
Mauro GIULIANI (1781-1829)
Grande Ouverture, Op.61 (1814) [7:38]
Richard Rodney BENNETT (1936-2012)
Impromptus (1968) [7:51]
Benjamin BRITTEN (1913-1976)
Nocturnal after John Dowland, Op.70 (1963) [16:39]
Johann Sebastian BACH (1685-1750)
Cello Suite No.1 in G major, BWV1007: I Prelude (1717-23) arr. for guitar [3:07]
Benjamin BRITTEN
Folksong arrangements Vol.6 'England' (pub 1961); No.1, I will give my love an apple [1:51]: No.3 Master Kilby [1:52]
Franz SCHUBERT (1797-1828)
Piano Sonata No.18 in G major, D894: III Menuetto: Allegro moderato (1826), arr. Julian Bream for guitar [5:22]
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